Firstly Anxiety is information that can be useful to us. Like:
- Performing in an interview
- Playing a sport
- Preparing for an exam etc
We will always feel some anxiety and stress
It helps us sharpen our focus. We will always feel some anxiety and stress when we are entering into an unknown area of our lives. However, anxiety becomes a problem when we live in a state of arousal. Our body is experiencing anxiety that is out of proportion to what is happening or for no apparent reason. Ask yourself the following questions to see if any of them apply to you!
- Do you experience intense anxious feeling or nerviness or fear a lot of the time?
- Is this feeling dictating how you live your life?
- Do you struggle in certain social situations or around certain events?
- Have you a feeling of powerlessness or helpless?
- Do you have trouble concentrating?
- Do you worry constantly?
Panic Attacks
Do you experience Panic attacks?
It is a sudden intense anxiety or terror.
You can experience some of the following:
- Racing heartbeat,
- Sweating,
- Shortness of breath
- Getting dizzy
- Trembling
- Nausea
- Chest pain
This can be over come!
Anxiety can turn into a disorder, as a way of dealing with the intense anxious feeling
For example:
- OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) Ritual repetitive acts can be performed to try and alleviate high anxious feelings. Example maybe: Washing ourselves repeatedly or having order in your life and objects need to be arranged in a precise way, obsessive about safety and checking and re-checking household appliances.
- Social Anxiety, fear of spaces, fear of leaving the house, fear that people are out to get us, fear of public transport, fear of our own anger or aggressive thoughts.
- Phobias such a fear of spiders, bugs, Mice, blood, water, illnesses, Fear of paces, having cancer or other illnesses.
When faced with these situations that trigger these intense sensations of fear and panic overwhelm us. Often we will spend a lot of time trying to avoid these triggers and this can cause a problem in living day to day. When we are unable to manage the feeling of anxiety and cope with this by finding unhelpful behaviours to try and lower the intensity of the feeling, but this most often, in the long run, prolongs the anxious experience and escalate behaviour and be a cause of added frustration and despair.
If you are experiencing any of the symptoms then this is where I can help!
Anxiety gets better by exploring in therapy the root cause of it. This may not be a pain as it sounds. By understanding the root cause, we can have a much better handle on dealing with anxiety because we can then put a framework on it that allows us to put the anxiety in a place where it belongs, in the past! Also by learning to relax, and learn to de-intensify the anxious feeling we can live a more engaging and productive life. It may be more manageable than you presently think!
All this is done in private, confidential one to one sessions.
